We are transforming a 6.5-acre wetland into an accessible outdoor classroom and laboratory for researchers and undergraduate students to design and test innovative living shoreline structures and strategies, promote the protection of coastal wetlands, and support outdoor instruction for K–12.
Why We Care
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) – Port Isabel campus includes 6.5 acres of coastal wetland habitat that includes open water, oyster beds, seagrass meadows, mangroves, and cordgrass marshes. Since 1995, this area has been eroding at a rate of approximately 1–7 feet per year, with channel-ward inundation transitioning valuable intertidal ecosystems into open water. This project aims to transform this challenge into an opportunity to engage resource end users and UTRGV students and faculty around the science used to guide coastal wetland preservation.
What We Are Doing
UTRGV will transform its Port Isabel campus coastline into an outdoor classroom and laboratory to include an experimental living shoreline, elevated marsh observatory, and a pier-based ocean science sensor array. The living shoreline will protect approximately 2,000 linear feet of shoreline and will provide valuable research opportunities to UTRGV undergraduate and graduate students, who will design and test innovative shoreline solutions, monitor project success, and be engaged in adaptive management decision making. The restored Marsh Observatory Trail will support outdoor instruction for marine science courses and monitoring programs. Lastly, instrumentation installed on a nearby pier will allow researchers and students to collect water, plankton and fish larvae samples, as well as analyze data related to coastal water quality and ecosystem health.
Benefits of Our Work
Through hands-on practical experiences, students will be trained in restoration concepts and practices particularly as it relates to shoreline stabilization. UTRGV’s restoration work will also serve as a demonstration project for the local community interested in applying best practices for shoreline stabilization projects. The marsh observatory will benefit K-12 and secondary education students by providing hands-on education and training promoting monitoring of coastal wetlands. The Healthy Oceans Instrument Pier will provide continuous water quality measurements, including monitoring for harmful algal blooms. The data produced will be publicly accessible to the community and resource managers.